After our awesome Spartan race, I wanted to show Mike my old college town, Davis. So we stayed in Davis and got a hotel not too far from the freeway there. We did a little exploring downtown and had breakfast at a super yummy little local place not too far from the University. Fresh and delicious! We had fun giving Keenan a shower with daddy and letting him play around in the hotel room. He always loves new places to explore!
A clean Keeney baby...
is a happy Keeney baby!
A special treat for me (which was not nearly as exciting for Mike) was looking for the Villanova house that I lived in while attending college. It took me a little while to remember exactly where the street was in Davis. It was also a little hard to recognize because the door was painted a different color and the address numbers on the house were new. Other than that, it looked a lot the same! I lived there with 6 girls, and have lots of fun memories in this house 😊
We called it the Villanova house... simply because the address was on Villanova Drive!
Next stop: Woodland, California. It has been so long since I've been back here. We made dinner plans to visit with our old friends from Santa Clarita, the Hoglund family. They have always been so kind and generous to me. I lived with them in Woodland for awhile, and have a long history of on and off dating their son, Hans. Connie asked me to please come visit with my family if we were ever in the area, so we did. It was so good to see her and Bill, as well as their little niece Olivia. Both Bill and Connie haven't changed a bit! Bill is hyper and happy and an energizer bunny. Connie is kind and caring and welcoming and generous. They made us dinner and we did some catching up.
On the way there we stopped and had some Chinese food and hung out at a local park with Keenan. The park was actually one of the most fun parks I've ever seen. They even had speakers and a light up electronic game in this strange pod thing in the middle of the park. Plus they had like a million swings. It was a popular place for the kids.
Keenan certainly enjoyed himself!
sweet baby boy
Love him! 💗
Whee!!
Keenan sure looked cute playing around in his car seat when we got back in the car:
peek-a-boo!
cutest face ever!
I'm NOT going to sit down again!
I'm too cute!
Keenan is not used to having stairs around. He enjoyed climbing the stairs at the Hoglund's house:
And of course we had to make sure we got a couple photos of all of us together 😊
Mike, mommy, Keenan, Bill, and Olivia
Needed one with Connie too! She was so sweet to get Keenan a little gift while we were there.
Mike went on an evening walk with Bill and Olivia while Connie and I caught up for a bit:
beautiful night for a walk!
Amazing!
Mike caught quite a few cool pics!
...And Keenan voices his opinion about being back in the car:
We found a new food that Keenan loves: ice cream. Not surprising at all...Delicious!The next day we went exploring in Napa Valley, California. The Hoglunds recommended that we visit a fancy store called Dean & Deluca. So we went there and had some pricey soup on the patio and enjoyed the California sun.
Its a beautiful day!
he's just the cutest baby!
group photo
Next we found a historical old mansion that we decided to go take a look at. It was called Elmshaven and was where Ellen White, the founder of the the 7th Day Adventist Church, lived. It was in such a gorgeous location and we learned a lot of historical information on our tour.
Keenan had a lot of things to say on the tour
Beautiful location
Interesting history in this house
Next we drove through St. Helena a bit and visited the famous Culinary Institute of America, as well as a couple extravagant looking wineries. Napa Valley really does have some gorgeous scenery.
where master chefs learn their trade
Some of the beautiful architecture at the wineries:
Next we found a fancy restaurant dowtown called Cook St. Helena and enjoyed some fine dining Italian food... with a baby. A babysitter would have been nice but we made do. Lots of people of course commented on his cuteness, as always.
Back in Logan, the girls were lucky enough to get to spend some time enjoying the autumn leaves with nana and papa. I was sent these super cute pics that made me smile 😊
I do make some pretty cute humans!
They also worked on one of Avril's school projects for her Excellent Eagle Award. Nana always makes sure that projects are super artsy and top notch! Here is Avril's Native American poster that nana helped her make:
What better way to spend your anniversary than sweaty and dirty and jumping over hot flames? For our 3 year wedding anniversary we signed up to do a Spartan race in Sacramento. We loaded the baby in the car and took a road trip! Keenan was surprisingly good... luckily we have some family - Steven and Susan Parkinson, very close to the race site, and they were kind enough to watch our precious little one while we spent some quality race time together...
Here is Keenan at one of our stops along the way to Sacramento... trying out some delicious ice cream!He was a fan of it.
Mmmm..
There were lots of fun toys to play with at Steven and Susan's place!
Here we are at the start of the race. Ready to kill it!
not disgustingly dirty yet!
These pictures are not necessarily in order, as that would take me too long to rearrange... but we did get some good race shots, as seen below:
Hot date!
Aaahh!!
Nailed it!
Awesome muddy, freezing cow water
such a romantic date...
My big, strong hubby:
No sweat!
I got this!
He loves me:
Hottie:
We did it! Spartan Strong...
Spartan smooch! 😍
.
I love you, babe. Thank you for taking on this journey called life with me. Thank you for being my partner in all the ups and downs. Thank you for being the man in our lives. Thank you for being my "Chip" and doing so many handyman things to perfection that I have no idea how to do. Thank you for being loyal and loving and making me laugh sometimes and cringe others. Thank you for marrying me on the beach in San Diego 3 years ago during the windiest San Diego half hour in history. Thanks for making a Keeney baby for our family. You are an amazing guy and I am a lucky woman. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! 💕
